Dr. Allan Abbass (born February 22, 1962) is professor,

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry, the branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, study, and treatment of mental disorders. Psychiatrists are physicians and evaluate patients to determine whether their sy ...

, and founding Director of the Centre for Emotions and Health at

Dalhousie University Dalhousie University (commonly known as Dal) is a large public research university in Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the fou ...

in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Career

Dr. Abbass' clinical specialty and research focus is the use of Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy ( ISTDP). Dr. Abbass' work has focused on the use of intensive short-term dynamic

psychotherapy Psychotherapy (also psychological therapy, talk therapy, or talking therapy) is the use of psychological methods, particularly when based on regular personal interaction, to help a person change behavior, increase happiness, and overcome pro ...

to diagnose and treat medically unexplained physical symptoms. Dr. Abbass has developed psychotherapy training programs in ISTDP. Dr. Abbass has published

clinical trials Clinical trials are prospective biomedical or behavioral research studies on human participants designed to answer specific questions about biomedical or behavioral interventions, including new treatments (such as novel vaccines, drugs, dietar ...

on the effectiveness of ISTDP and meta-analyses on the effectiveness of ISTDP and Short-term Dynamic Psychotherapy overall. He has published extensively on the cost effectiveness of ISTDP. Dr. Abbass has facilitated the development of ISTDP training programs in Australia , Italy, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, and the UK.

Organisational affiliations and recognition

In 2001, Dr. Abbass was awarded The Association of Chairs of Psychiatry of Canada Education Award for Excellence in Education. In 2013, Dr. Abbass was Awarded the Douglas Utting Award in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in the "Canadian Providing Outstanding Contributions" category, for the recognition and treatment of depression. He was awarded the designation "Distinguished Professor of 2016" by the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Department of Psychiatry. In 2018 he was named The David Malan Visiting Professor of Psychotherapy at the Tavistock in London, UK and is also Visiting Professor of Psychotherapy at University of Derby, UK. He is currently the President of the International Experiential Dynamic Therapy Association. He is an advisory board member on the American Psychological Association's Unified Psychotherapy project, and is on the scientific committee of the American Psychoanalytic Association. He is faculty of the Norwegian Institute for ISTDP He is on the editorial board of the American Journal of Psychotherapy

Publications

He published his first book, Reaching through Resistance: Advanced Psychotherapy Techniques, in 2015. www.allanabbass.com His second book Hidden from View: Clinician's Guide to Psychophysiologic Disorders was published in 2018 with Dr Howard Schubiner www.unlearnyourpain.com Dr. Abbass has also published on the use of videotape and videoconference for training in short term psychotherapy.

Basketball

An avid basketball fan and player, Allan was named one of Canada's top 25 under 19 year old players while in High School. He was named to the Harrison Trimble High School Sports Hall of Fame in 2007. He played university basketball at Ottawa University and Dalhousie University. He has been an investor and board member of the Halifax Hurricanes, the 2016 Champions of the National Basketball League of Canada.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abbass, Allan 1962 births Living people Canadian psychiatrists Dalhousie University faculty Place of birth missing (living people)